Mother kicks fox as it drags baby through house

THE parents of a four-week-old baby who had his finger ripped off in a savage fox attack are keeping a bedside vigil for their little boy.

Denny was taken to hospital where surgeons re-attached the finger and stitched a face wound.

Denny Dolan was asleep in his cot when a fox sneaked into the house and pounced, apparently dragging the boy from his cot and towards the back door.

His horrified mother Hayley Cawley, 28, heard screams and ran in to see her son’s hand lodged “halfway down the throat” of the fox, which also bit little Denny’s face.

Stunned Ms Cawley kicked the animal off her baby and then it fled from the house in Bromley, south-east London.

Denny was taken to hospital where surgeons re-attached the finger and stitched a face wound.

As Ms Cawley and partner Paul Dolan watched over their son, neighbours on the Downham Estate called for a fox cull.

Lorraine Murphy, the boy’s aunt, said: “Hayley heard a bang and came running down and the fox was dragging the baby towards the back door. She kicked the fox a few times before it would release him.”

“His hand was badly damaged and he had four cuts to his face. He was in the operating theatre for about four hours. The surgeons said there was a 70 per cent chance he would be able to use his hand again. His family are devastated. My brother couldn’t even talk.”

A neighbour said: “It was awful. I heard the mum screaming and then I heard the baby crying. The mum was hysterical, she kept saying, ‘A fox attacked my baby’.”